BAMPFIELD, John

Bampfield was born as a younger son to the head of an influential west-country family, which had first provided an MP in the mid fourteenth century. Fundamental to the family’s influence was its close connexions with the Courtenay earls of Devon. Both John and his elder brother Richard were retained by Earl Hugh and accompanied him to France in 1420.7 E101/49/34; E28/97/8; CIPM, xxiii. 549. The earl’s death two years later left his son and heir a minor, and Richard Bampfield rose to some prominence as one of the trustees of the comital estates. From 1428 until his death in 1430 he also served the Crown as controller of the coinage of tin in Devon and Cornwall.8 CPR, 1422-9, pp. 108, 480; 1429-36, pp. 4, 54. The protracted minority of the young Earl Thomas saw many former members of the Courtenay circle drawn into the orbit of Walter, lord Hungerford†, and his son-in-law, (Sir) Philip Courtenay* of Powderham, who came to dominate political society in the south-west in the late 1420s and 1430s, and the two Bampfields were no exception. Richard was among the members of the Hungerford circle who witnessed the settlements of the peer’s estates, but it was John who was designated for a farther-reaching political role.9 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 43-44, 56; M. Cherry, ‘Crown and Political Community Devon’ (Univ. of Wales, Swansea, Ph.D. thesis, 1981), 220, 228-9, 240.

From the early 1420s, he began to cut his teeth in local administration. He regularly attended parliamentary elections in the county court, setting his seal to the sheriff’s indenture in November 1421 and April 1425, and later in April 1432, August 1435 and January 1449. In December 1426, not long after Hungerford had become treasurer of England, he was pricked as sheriff of Devon and in this capacity presided at the elections of the following January.10 C219/12/6, 13/3, 4, 14/3, 5, 15/6. In November 1428 he began a lengthy spell of 16 months as escheator for the double bailiwick of Devon and Cornwall. Bampfield still held this office when he was elected to represent the shire in the Parliament of 1429, and it was not until a month into the second session of the Parliament that he was relieved of his office and replaced by the former Member for Bodmin, John Wyse* of Sydenham. There can be little doubt that Bampfield owed his election to Hungerford interest: along with other members of the treasurer’s inner circle he was among the group of feoffees on whom the peer settled parts of his estates while the Lords and Commons were in session.11 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 43-44, 56.

Bampfield returned from Westminster to find his elder brother dying, and as the latter had no children, within weeks he succeeded to the family estates in their entirety. This inheritance, which included the family seat of Poltimore to the north-east of Exeter, as well as the nearby manor of Huxham, provided him with a substantial income, believed to be in excess of the £40 p.a. qualifying him for the degree of knighthood.12 E372/275, 284. Not long afterwards John also succeeded to the estates inherited by his wife Agnes Pederton, centred around the valuable Somerset manor of Dunkerton.13 Feudal Aids, iv. 378. While the couple enfeoffed the bulk of the Pederton lands to their own use with remainder to their elder son William, the remainder of part of their holdings in Hardington was set aside as an endowment for their second son, Peter, whose heirs continued to hold these properties into the sixteenth century.14 Som. Feet of Fines, 98-99; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 273.

With the acquisition of Bampfield’s lands went the petty squabbles over feudal rights that were common to the age. Thus, in the early 1440s John quarrelled with a local gentleman, Stephen Reynold, over fishing and hunting rights at Poltimore and Hoxham. Bampfield claimed that Reynold and two accomplices had forced their way into his property, fished in his ponds, and stolen fish to a value of £33 12s. 8d., as well as 1,000 rabbits, 100 pheasants and 40 partridges worth £20.15 CP40/737, rots. 46d, 176. In July 1445 the parties put the matter to the arbitration of three prominent lawyers probably well known to Bampfield: John Copplestone*, Nicholas Radford* and John Wolston*. Their verdict is not recorded.16 CCR, 1441-7, p. 308. Perhaps more interesting is a claim to the neifty of a 52 year old man, Thomas Boly, that Bampfield brought in Chancery about this time. Such claims were not unusual in the law courts of the mid fifteenth century, but were normally brought collusively and with the intention of placing on the record the former villein’s manumission. Bampfield for his part seems to have sought to enforce his feudal rights and succeeded in doing so, for the chancellor found squarely in his favour.17 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 290-1; C244/45/155, 156.

Bampfield was now prominent and wealthy enough to be able to contract an advantageous marriage for his elder son. He therefore came to an arrangement with the wealthy Somerset lawyer and landowner, John Austell*. Under the terms of their agreement, Austell’s daughter Agnes was to marry Bampfield’s son William, and the bride’s father was to settle lands worth £10 p.a. on the couple. However, Austell failed to keep his part of the bargain, and instead married his daughter to one Thomas Burton.18 KB27/714, rot. 98d. In the event, the failure of the Austell marriage provided an opportunity for a double alliance with another Somerset family, the Pauncefoots of Compton Pauncefoot, a cadet branch of a Gloucestershire family which provided at least two shire knights for that county in the fifteenth century. William Bampfield married Margaret, the daughter of Walter Pauncefoot (d.1441), while the latter’s son, another Walter, married William’s sister Thomasina. The Pauncefoot marriages established a lasting relationship between the two families. The elder Walter had endowed his son and the latter’s young wife with some of his estates, and the day-to-day administration of the holdings was entrusted to Bampfield. This arrangement continued for some 12 years, and when Walter Pauncefoot senior died and was succeeded by his son, the remainder of the Pauncefoot lands were also entrusted to Bampfield as receiver. However, after Bampfield’s death relations between his son William and their Pauncefoot kin deteriorated, and the Pauncefoots had to petition the chancellor in order to regain their money.19 Vivian, 38; C1/16/425; CFR, xvii. 196. Bampfield himself had at times executed some of his duties by deputies, and on at least one occasion saw himself forced to sue one of them, a certain Richard Grove for an account for the time when he had acted as his receiver.20 CP40/760, rot. 15. Nevertheless, others beside the Pauncefoots also valued Bampfield’s administrative expertise. He was employed as a feoffee by men as prominent as Sir William Bonville*, and acted as mainpernor for the custodians of the alien priory of St. James at Exeter.21 CP40/720, rot. 213d; CFR, xv. 289; CP25(1)/45/79/19, 46/86/196, 201/36/65; CCR, 1435-41, p. 42.

Nothing is known of the last years of Bampfield’s life, but his death in either late 1454 or early 1455 seems to have been unexpected, for he died intestate, leaving his son William to administer his goods.22 C139/51/49; CFR, xix. 99. The date of Bampfield’s death is here calculated as preceeding the issue of his writ of diem clausit extremum by a few months at most. A petition to the chancellor submitted sometime after his death could indicate an earlier date, as it suggests that Bampfield died eight years after Walter Pauncefoot (d.1441): C1/16/425; CFR, xvii. 196. William, who survived until 1474, continued the family’s tradition of service to the Courtenay earls, becoming closely associated with Earl Thomas in his activities of 1455-6.23 CFR, xxi. 227-8; C140/48/10; Cherry, 215, 318. The MP’s younger son Peter (d.1499) maintained close connexions with his relatives, the Pauncefoots. He acted as executor for Sir Walter Pauncefoot (d.1485) and in his own will he made provision for the establishment of a chantry at Compton Pauncefoot, as Walter had requested.24 CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 273; PCC 16 Logge (PROB11/7, f. 118); 34 Horne (PROB11/11, ff. 270-270v).